Time-based organization of desktop items

ABSTRACT

A method and system for time-based organization of desktop items is described.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to co-pending U.S. application No. not yetassigned, Attorney docket No. 5220P856, entitled “Automatic Backup ofDesktop Items,” and U.S. Application No. not yet assigned, Attorneydocket No. 5220P857, entitled “Assigning Labels to Desktop Items,” filedherewith, whose entire contents are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate to management of desktopitems, and more specifically, to time-based organization of desktopitems.

BACKGROUND

It is important for a computing environment to provide a simple andeffective way to find, organize, and be reminded about content and data.This is, of course, a complicated and difficult problem; one theindustry has been struggling with for almost 40 years. By finding, weare actually referring to re-finding something that has already beenseen—intentional/conscious retrieval. This a bit different from the taskof web searching for something new. Reminding refers to theestablishment and use of cues (usually visual) that assist or supplementmemory—opportunistic retrieval. Some have referred to the problem asthat of “keeping found things found.”

Some functional evaluation frameworks classify three types or sets ofinformation: 1) ephemeral—has a short shelf life and includes items suchas unread electronic mail messages (emails), “to do” lists, note pads,memos, calendars, items to print out, forms to fill out, bills to pay,and news articles downloaded from databases; 2) working—isfrequently-used information that is relevant to the user's current workneeds and that has a shelf life that depends on the lifetime of theproject, such as a day or two, a week, or months; and 3)archived—strictly speaking has no shelf life, but is only indirectlyrelevant to the user's current work, and is infrequently accessed. Theseitems do not go away or become worthless, but they fade from relevancegradually. These functional evaluation frameworks have also identified anumber of factors that may be used to evaluate information retrievalsystems: 1) portability of information, 2) number of access points, 3)persistence of information, 4) preservation of information in itscurrent state, 5) currency of information, 6) context, 7) reminding, 8)ease of integration, 9) communication and information sharing, and 10)ease of maintenance.

Most computing environments offer a number of tools that attempt toaddress aspects of the general problem. These often include: desktop(folder), places (folders or collections), search functions, recentlyused lists, a file manager (e.g., Explorer or Finder), file open/savedialogs (also referred to as file chooser dialogs). Other studies haveshown that email, although originally designed as a communicationsapplication, has increasingly been used for task management and personalarchiving. Some email applications define a few types of informationthat are kept around and not dealt with immediately, including to-doitems, to-read items, items of indeterminate status, ongoing items overa period, and record or history. These may be viewed as anotherformulation of the three types or sets of information described above.

Conventional computing environments typically store files in filedirectories of a file system. These conventional computing environmentsprovide a file manager, such as Explorer or Finder, to allow a user toaccess, view, open, save, create, or modify files in the file system.These conventional computing environments typically provide a desktopview, which is a visual representation of files that are stored in adesktop folder in the file directory. These desktops may be helpful forpermanently or temporarily storing files of interest. In general, thereare three types of users in these computing environments: 1) “nofilers”—never file or categorize information into folders; 2) “springcleaners”—attempt to file information (often ineffectively) after theorganization system has broken down; and 3) “frequent filers”—makestrenuous efforts to organize information. Organization information inthese computing environments, however, has a number of problems withfiling in general. In particular, it is a cognitively difficult task,there are desires to postpone filing judgments, folders may be toosmall, folders may be too big, folders may be too numerous, and maydrastically reduce the reminding function.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be understood more fully from the detaileddescription given below and from the accompanying drawings of variousembodiments of the invention, which, however, should not be taken tolimit the invention to the specific embodiments, but are for explanationand understanding only.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary network architecture in whichembodiments of a desktop manager may operate.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the desktop manager according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the desktop manager, including a backupmanager, according to another embodiment.

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method of creating andpresenting a time-ordered desktop view of desktop items.

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method of automaticallybacking up desktop items.

FIG. 4C is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method of filtering thetime-ordered desktop view according to labels of the desktop items.

FIG. 4D is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method of assigninglabels to desktop items.

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computing system for desktop information management.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary GUI, including a desktop view, accordingto one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and system for desktop information management. In oneembodiment, a desktop manager collects time-based information about dataobjects, creates a time-ordered desktop view of desktop items from thedata objects using the time-based information. The data objects may beany data that is encapsulated, such as a value, a variable, a function,a program, or a data structure that can be processed by a computingsystem, such as file system objects, objects of databases, files,applications, scripts, instant message conversations, blog entries,social media posts, and other data as would be appreciated by those ofordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. Thedata object may be the file itself or may be data objects stored withina file. In one embodiment, the time-based information about each of thedata objects includes at least one of a creation timestamp, alast-accessed timestamp, a last-modified timestamp, a calendar event, areminder event, or a follow-up date. Alternatively, the time-basedinformation may be other information about the data objects, such as areminder data, due date data, to-do data, to-read data, reoccurringevent data, or record or history data associated with the respectivedata objects. In another embodiment, the time-based information abouteach of the data objects includes a time-based type of action to beperformed on the respective data object, the time-based type of actionsincluding a future action, a current action, and a past action. Thetime-based information may be used to organize the desktop itemsaccording to the time-based type of actions. The desktop managerpresents a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display, the GUIdisplaying at least a portion of the time-ordered desktop view of thedesktop items. The GUI may present the time-ordered view in at least oneof a list view, a thumbnail view, an icon view, or a menu view. Forexample, the time-ordered view may be a time-ordered list of desktopitems. The GUI may be presented in at least one of a file browser (e.g.,MS Explorer, Mac OS Finder, or other file chooser applications), a webbrowser, a viewing area of an application, or a working area (main view)of the computing system's display. The GUI may be displayed within awindow, which is a visual area of the display containing some kind ofuser interface. The GUI displays the output of one or more processes andallows input to be received from the user for those processes. The GUIcan be manipulated by the user using a mouse cursor, and can receiveinput view a keyboard, a mouse, a touchpad, or other user input devices.The GUI may include other graphical objects, such as a menu-bar,toolbars, controls, icons, or the like. It should also be noted that theGUI may be represented in one or more windows. Alternatively, thedesktop view may be presented as a main view of the computer's display,such as the background of the display that can be covered at times bywindows that have been opened. Also, as described herein, the GUI mayprovide an activities view as the background and the desktop view can bea window that opens on top of the activities view.

In another embodiment, the desktop manager collects time-basedinformation about data objects stored in a local data storage, creates adesktop view of desktop items, and determines whether to back up one ormore of the desktop items using the time-based information. The desktopmanager, based on the determination, automatically backs up the one ormore desktop items in a remote data store over a network.

In another embodiment, the desktop manager collects time-basedinformation, creates a time-ordered desktop view of desktop items usingthe time-based information, and filters the time-ordered desktop viewaccording to labels. The desktop manager presents a GUI on a displaywith at least a portion of the filtered, time-ordered desktop view ofdesktop items.

As described above, it is important for a computing environment toprovide a simple and effective way to find, organize, and be remindedabout content and data. The embodiments described herein provide animproved computing environment that provides a simple and effective wayto find, organize, and be reminded about content and data via a desktopview. The embodiments described herein may use three categories ofinformation: 1) on hand—information that should remain easily andquickly accessible while relevant; 2) under foot—information that shouldbe visible to facilitate opportunistic finding and reminding; and 3) outof sight—when the shelf life of the first two types of informationexpire, they should slip out of view. Information that is frequentlyused or currently relevant should be kept around and readily available.Information that is incomplete or needs attention or action should bekept in a place where it may be tripped over to offer opportunisticfinding and reminding. Other information that may no longer beimmediately relevant should be available, but out of the way and notinterfere, clutter, or confuse. Out-of-the-way information should have adistance that is proportional to its relevance (such as a time of lastuse). The embodiments described herein organize information so that theinformation is available, persistent, current, contextual, present(serves as a useful reminding function), shareable, and transparent(doesn't require effort to maintain). The embodiments described hereinmay be beneficial to the three types of users as described above—the “nofilers,” “spring cleaners,” and “frequent filers.”

In the following description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that embodiments of the present inventionmay be practiced without these specific details. In some instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form,rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments ofthe present invention.

Some portions of the detailed description that follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “collecting,” “creating,” “filtering,” “presenting,”“receiving,” “generating,” “quantifying,” “reporting,” “executing,”“defining,” “specifying,” “initializing,” “processing,” “providing,”“computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” “displaying,” or the like,refer to the actions and processes of a computing system, or similarelectronic computing systems, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within thecomputing system's registers and memories into other data similarlyrepresented as physical quantities within the computing system memoriesor registers or other such information storage, transmission or displaydevices.

Embodiments of the present invention also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing system specifically programmed by a computerprogram stored in the computing system. Such a computer program may bestored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as, but not limitedto, any type of disk including optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of exemplary network architecture 100 in whichembodiments of a desktop manager 120 may operate. The networkarchitecture 100 may include a host computing system 102, which hoststhe desktop manager 120, and one or more remote devices, including, forexample, a remote computing system 130, and a remote data storage 160,which are each connected to the host computing system 102 via one ormore networks 103. The one or more networks 103 may each be a privatenetwork (e.g., a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN),intranet, etc.) or a public network (e.g., the Internet). The hostcomputing system 102 may be one or more machines including one or morecomputers, desktop computers, laptop computers, gateways, cellularphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), other portable ornon-portable computing devices. In one embodiment, the host computingsystem is a client-computing device. In another embodiment, the hostcomputing system 102 is a server of an enterprise, but is a “client”with respect to the other network devices. The remote computing system130 may be one or more machines including one or more server computers,gateways, routers, switches, or other network computing devices. In oneembodiment, the host computing system 102 has data stores 140 and 150,which are configured to store local data objects 142 and time-basedinformation 152, respectively. The data stores 140 and 150 may beseparate databases, and may reside on one or more of the same ordifferent storage devices (e.g., the computer-readable medium describedabove) that are local to the host computing system 102 and/or remotefrom the host computing system 102. In one embodiment, the data stores140 and 150 are stored in the same storage device of the host computingsystem 102. In one embodiment, the local data objects 142 are stored ina file directory according to a file system used by an operating systemof the host computing system 102, and the time-based information 152 isstored in an index that allows for quick searching and retrieval of thetime-based information 152 about the local data objects 142. In anotherembodiment, the local data objects 142 and the time-based information152 are stored in a single database. In another embodiment, the localdata objects 142 are not stored according to the file system of the hostcomputing system 102, but are stored using other storage schemes aswould be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure.

In one embodiment, the remote computing system 130 includes data storage160, which may be configured to store remote data objects 162 for thehost computing system 102. The remote data objects 162 can be stored ina database or other type of data store, and may be stored according to afile system of the remote computing system 130. The data storage 160 maybe one or more storage devices that are local or remote to the remotecomputing system 130. In yet another embodiment, the networkarchitecture 100 includes a remote data storage 160, which is configuredto store remote data objects 162 for the host computing system 102. Theremote data storage 160 may be one or more storage devices. The remotedata objects 162 can be stored in a database or other type of datastore, and may be stored according to a file system or according toblocks or other logical units of data as would be appreciated by one ofordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

The host computing system 102 interacts with the remote computing system130 and/or remote data storage 160 by exchanging messages via one ormore communication protocols.

The host computing system 102 includes a processing device 104 thatexecutes the desktop manager 120. The processing device 104 representsone or more general-purpose processing devices such as a microprocessor,central processing unit, or the like. More particularly, the processingdevice 104 may be a complex instruction set computing (CISC)microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor,very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or a processorimplementing other instruction sets or processors implementing acombination of instruction sets. The processing device 104 may also beone or more special-purpose processing devices such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array(FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or thelike. The processing device 104 is configured to execute the processinglogic (e.g., desktop manager 120) for performing the operations andsteps discussed herein. The operations of the desktop manager 120 aredescribed in more detail below with respect to FIGS. 2, 3, 4A-4D. Thedesktop manager 120 may be a stand-alone application that executes onthe host computing system 102 or may be integrated into the operatingsystem of the host computing system 102. By integrating the desktopmanager 120 into the operating system, the desktop manager 120 can moreeasily monitor operations being performed on the local data objects 142and remote data objects 162 by the operating system and otherapplications executing on the host computing system 102.

In the depicted embodiment, the host computing system 102 includes adisplay 170 on which the desktop manager 120 can present GUIs. The GUIsallow a user to interact with the desktop manager 120, such as to viewthe desktop items, create and add labels to desktop items, to specifyparameters for automatic back up of the desktop items or the like, asdescribed in more detail below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the desktop manager 220 according to oneembodiment. The desktop manager 220, which is executed by the processingdevice 104, performs various desktop information management functions asdescribed in various embodiments below. The desktop manager 220 may beintegrated into the operating system of the host computing system 102.The desktop manager 220 may also be a stand-alone application. However,when integrated as part of the operating system, the desktop manager 220can be one or more processes that are always running when the operatingsystem is running. The desktop manager 220 can monitor activities beingperformed on data objects in order to maintain and present currentinformation and to allow searching, indexing, and organizing of thedesktop items.

In the depicted embodiment, the desktop manager 220 includes a timeinformation collector 202, a desktop view generator 204, a GUI engine206, and a labeling manager 210. The time information collector 202 iscommunicatively coupled to the data stores 140 and 150. The timeinformation collector 202 is configured to collect time-basedinformation about the local data objects 142 (and/or the remote dataobjects 162). The time information collector 202 stores the collectedtime-based information 152 into the data store 150. In one embodiment,the time information collector 202 uses Tracker, which may include anindexer, a search tool, and command line tools. The indexer is alightweight daemon that extracts information from data objects (e.g.,trackerd) and stores the extracted information in an index. The trackersearch tool may provide a GUI object that allows the user to search theindexed data. The command line tools can be used for searching, queryingthe daemon status, and can be used for tagging desktop items (or thedata objects themselves) as described in more detail below. A tag, whichis a textual label, can be assigned to any data object to help organizeand remember the data object. Tags may be a one-word label, or can befreeform text that allows multi-word labels. Tags can be tracked likeother metadata, which can be extracted from within the data object. Tagsmay be chosen by the user, may be automatically assigned, or may beautomatically supplied as default tags. A user can assign as many tagsto a data object as desired and rename or delete the tags later. Thetime information collector 202 can monitor applications, disk accessrequests, etc, to keep up-to-date information about the data objectsassociated with the host computing system 102. During monitoring, thetime information collector 202 extracts time-based information aboutthese data objects, such as when was the data object created, when wasit last modified or saved, when was it last accessed, how frequent thedata object has been accessed, or other metadata about each of the dataobjects. The time information collector 202 can create an index of thedata objects and store the metadata, including the time-basedinformation 152 about those local data objects 142 stored in the datastore 140 and/or remote data objects 162 in the remote data storage 160.

In one embodiment, the desktop view generator 204 accesses thetime-based information 152, such as the index created by the timeinformation collector, to generate desktop views. In one embodiment, thedesktop view generator 204 generates a link for each of the desktopitems to be displayed in the GUI; each link referring to one of the dataobjects stored in the local or remote storage. In other embodiments, thedesktop view generator 204 may generate a desktop view that includessymbolic links for both local data objects 142 and remote data objects162 regardless of the storage locations of the local data objects 142and the remote data objects 162. The symbolic links may be an icon, athumbnail, a shortcut, an alias, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), aUniform Resource Identifier (URI) or other types of symbolic links aswould be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure. Symbolic links are a special type of filethat contains a reference to another file, a data object, or a directoryin the form of an absolute or relative path. A symbolic link merelycontains a text string that is interpreted and followed by the operatingsystem as a path to another file, data object, or directory. Thesymbolic link can be a file on its own or a data object and can existindependently of its target. Symbolic links operates transparently formost operations: programs that read or write to files named by asymbolic link will behave as if operating directly on the target file.However, some programs that need to handle the symbolic link speciallymay identify and manipulate them directly. An icon, also referred to asa computer icon, is small pictogram used in GUIs to supplement thepresentation of textual information to the user. A thumbnail is a smallvisual representation of the contents of the respective data object, aswould be shown in a display. A shortcut is a small file containing atarget UIR or GUID, the name of a target program file that the shortcutrepresents, or a target file, a target data object, or a targetdirectory. The shortcut may also have additional parameter informationthat can be passed to the target program, data object, or file when itis selected. For example, Microsoft Windows operating systems use .lnkas the filename extension for shortcuts to local files and .URL forshortcuts to remote files, web pages, or other remote resources.Generally, double-clicking a shortcut is intended to be the same asdouble-clicking the application or file to which it refers. Some Unixbased operating system may use .desktop files to point to local orremote files, folders, and applications. Mac-based operating systems mayuse aliases as symbolic links that point to local or remote files,folders, and applications. A URI is a string of characters used toidentify a name or a resource on the Internet. A URL is a URI thatspecifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanismfor retrieving it.

In one embodiment, the desktop view generator 204 can create atime-ordered desktop view of desktop items based on the time-basedinformation 152. For example, the desktop view generator 204 generates atime-ordered desktop view of desktop items that shows desktop items formultiple subcategories, such as a desktop of currently opened documents,a desktop of today, a desktop of tomorrow, a desktop of by the end ofthe week, a desktop of this week, and a desktop of last week.

In the depicted embodiment, the GUI engine 206, which is communicativelycoupled to the desktop view generator 204, generates a GUI on thedisplay 170. The GUI may be a desktop view itself or may include a linkto open a desktop view. The GUI engine 206 presents at least a portionof the time-ordered desktop view of desktop items in the GUI.

In one embodiment, the desktop view generator 204 generates atime-ordered desktop view, and the GUI engine 206 presents the GUIhaving time-ordered desktop view, such as the desktop view 602illustrated in FIG. 6. In another embodiment, the desktop view generator204 generates a desktop view that is not necessarily organized accordingto the time-based information 152, and the GUI engine 206 presents thedesktop view in the display 170.

In one embodiment, the time information collector 202 collectstime-based information for the local data objects 142 stored in a firstdatabase and remote data objects 162 stored in a second database (ormultiple remote databases). The first database may be a files system ofthe host computing system 102, while the second database may be a remotedatabase that stores remote data objects 162 for the host computingsystem 102. As described above, the remote data objects 162 may bestored in the remote data storage 160, or at the remote computing system130. The time information collector 202 may collect information aboutthe remote data objects 162 over the network 103 via the networkinterface 208.

In another embodiment, the desktop manager 220 includes the labelingmanager 210. The labeling manager 210 is configured to receive userinput from the user via the user interface 180 to filter the desktopitems according to the labels (also referred to as tags). In oneembodiment, the desktop view generator 204 generates the desktop view(time-ordered or not), and the labeling manager 210 filters the desktopview according to a set of one or more defined labels. The labels may bea set of default labels, a set of user-defined labels, or a combinationof both. The set of labels may include at least one of a new label, afrequently-used label, an important label, a shared label, a documentlabel, a picture label, a music label, a video label, a webpage label,an email label, a conversation label, a downloads label, a to-do label,or a follow-up label. Alternatively, the set of labels may be otherlabels as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the arthaving the benefit of this disclosure. The user interface 180 may beintegrated with the display 170 or may be separate. For example, as theuser selects an existing label in the desktop view, the labeling manager210 receives user input via the user interface 180. The user input mayinstruct the labeling manager 210 to filter the desktop view, generatedby the desktop view generator 204. The GUI engine 206 can update thedesktop view in the GUI on the display 170 as would be appreciated byone of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

In one embodiment, the time information collector 202 collectstime-based information 152 and label information about the data objects,and stores the time-based information 152 and the label information inthe data store 150. The label information includes zero or more labelsassigned to each of the data objects. In another embodiment, thelabeling manager 210 is configured to collect the label information,instead of the time information collector 202. The label information maybe stored in the index containing the time-based information 152 or maybe stored in its own index. Exemplary labels are illustrated in theexemplary desktop view 602, illustrated in FIG. 6, including new,frequent, starred, shared, documents, music, videos, pictures,downloads, conversations, from email, and trash. Alternatively, otherlabels may be used for the default labels or for user-defined labels.

The labeling manager 210 can receive user input to define the set oflabels, to modify the set of labels, to add new labels, and to manuallyassign labels to desktop items. In another embodiment, the labelingmanager 210 is configured to scan the data objects (local or remote dataobjects) or metadata associated with those data objects to automaticallydetermine and assign appropriate labels to the desktop items withoutuser interaction or with minimal user interaction. For example, thelabeling manager 210 may be configured to automatically assign adocument label to files with previously identified file extension types(e.g., .odt, .doc, .docx, .xls, etc). Similarly, the labeling manager210 may automatically assign music, video, pictures, emails,conversations, or the like based on the file extensions. The labelingmanager 210 may also be configured to automatically assign a downloadlabel to any item that is downloaded via, for example, a web browser ora FTP application. The labeling manager 210 may automatically assignother labels based on the filenames, the file extensions, content withinthe files, metadata associated with the files, the time-basedinformation 152, as well as other information associated with a dataobject as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the arthaving the benefit of this disclosure.

In one embodiment, the labeling manager 210 is configured to receiveuser input to perform operations on desktop items, such as to add a stardesignation, add an existing label, add a new label, or even add a noteto at least one of the desktop items. For the add star designation, thelabeling manager 210 adds a star label to one or more selected desktopitems. The starred item denotes a meaning a user assigns to that stardesignation, but could be a relative importance of the desktop item. Forexample, the desktop view may include all desktop items for today, butthe starred items could be listed first with a star designation,identifying those data objects as having a greater relative importancethan other desktop items in the current desktop view. For the “addexisting label” operation, the labeling manager 210 assigns the existinglabel to the selected desktop item. The labeling manager 210 can alsore-filter the desktop view after the operation. For the “add new label”operation, the labeling manager 210 creates the new label, and thenassigns the new label to the selected desktop items. The labelingmanager 210 can add the new label to set of existing labels, and canre-filter the desktop view according to the updated set of labels. Forthe “add note” operation, the labeling manager 210 adds a note to theselected desktop item by storing the note to the selected one or moredesktop items in the data store, such as part of the index of thetime-based information 152, or as part of the labeling informationstored in the data store 150.

The desktop manager 220 operates to combine desktop, search, places, andrecently-used lists into one view that may dynamically change over time.The desktop view can be used as a place to stage items that need to beaddressed. The desktop manager 220 can be used to allow desktop items toexpire from the desktop after some time and fall safely into atime-ordered list, and eventually into an archive as described in moredetail in FIG. 3. The places may be achieved by a default set of labelsor tags that can be used as filters in the desktop view, as describedherein. The desktop manager 220 can also provide enough abstraction fromthe underlying file system that the desktop manager 220 couldtransparently include non-local resources (e.g., remote data objects) inthe same view as local resources (e.g., local data objects). The desktopmanager 220 may also provide enough abstraction to include informationthat is not file-like, for example, the desktop manager 220 may displayan instant message conversation or other data objects that are notfile-like. The desktop manager 220 may also allow the user to scheduleitems to be addressed in the future directly within the desktop view. Inone embodiment, the desktop manager 220 can stack similar or relateddesktop items so that they do not clutter the desktop view. The desktopmanager 220 may also allow a user to access their desktop from the hostcomputing system 102, as well as from other remote locations, such asfrom a second computing system over the network (eg., the remotecomputing system 130 via the network 103). The desktop manager 220 mayalso present a desktop view that is not hidden behind all of the user'sactivities on the host computing system 102. The desktop manager 220 mayalso allow a user to easily share desktop items with others, and allowseverything in the archive to be readily searchable and have richcontextual metadata. The desktop manager 220 may also allow a user toadd almost any kind of item as a desktop item. As described herein, thedesktop manager 200 may allow the user to tag, star, and make othernotes about content directly from the desktop view.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the desktop manager 320, including a backupmanager 310, according to another embodiment. Some components of thedesktop manager 320 are similar to components of the desktop manager 220of FIG. 2 as noted by similar reference numbers. The desktop manager 320includes the backup manager 310, the time information collector 202, adesktop view manager 304, and the GUI engine 206. The time informationcollector 202 collects time-based information 152 and stores thetime-based information 152 in the local data store 340, the desktop viewgenerator 304 generates a desktop view of desktop items to be displayedin a GUI, and the GUI engine 206 presents the GUI in the display 170. Asdescribed above, the desktop manager 320 can be used to allow desktopitems to expire from the desktop view after some time and fall safelyinto a time-ordered list, and eventually into an archive. In order toarchive desktop items, the desktop manager 320 includes the backupmanager 310. The backup manager 310 is communicatively coupled to thelocal data store 340, as well as the network interface 208, and isconfigured to determine whether to back up one or more of the desktopitems using the time-based information 152. For example, the user mayset that desktop items are to be archived after desktop items have notbeen accessed for a month. When this condition is met, the backupmanager 310 initiates the automatic backup of these desktop items. Whenthe backup manager 310 determines that the desktop items need to bebacked up, the backup manager 310 automatically backs up the desktopitems in remote data storage 150 via the network interface 208. Ofcourse, other conditions may be specified for determining how toautomatically backup the desktop items. These conditions may beconfigurable by the user. In one embodiment, a backup agent 332 can beinstalled and executed on the remote computing system 330 to help thebackup manager 310 back up the data objects in a remote data storage 360of the remote computing system 330.

In one embodiment, the desktop view manager 304 is configured togenerate a symbolic link for each of the desktop items to be displayedin the GUI. The symbolic links each include a path to a storage locationwhere the respective data object is stored in the local data store 340.The backup manager 310 is configured to modify the symbolic link foreach of the one or more desktop items being automatically backed up.Each of the modified symbolic links includes a path to a storagelocation in the remote data storage 150.

In another embodiment, the backup manager 310 mirrors a local copy and aremote copy of each of the desktop items, the local copies (e.g., localdata objects 352) being stored in the local data store 350 and theremote copies (e.g., remote data objects 362) being stored in the remotedata storage 360. In computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a data set,and can be used as a type of data synchronization. For example, a changeto a local copy of the local data object 352 would automatically updatethe remote copy, i.e., the corresponding remote data object 362. Inanother embodiment, the backup manager 310 mirrors the local and remotecopies for a specified period of time, and, after the specified period,the backup manager 310 deletes the local copies of the desktop items. Byautomatically backing up the desktop items, the user does not have toinitiate backup of the local data objects, since the backup manager 310does it automatically and transparently to the user. The backup manager310 can be configured to continually backup desktop items or can bescheduled to backup desktop items in batches at a specified time and atspecified time intervals, as configured by the user.

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 400 of creatingand presenting a time-ordered desktop view of desktop items. The method400 is performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware(circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as is run on ageneral purpose computing system or a dedicated machine), firmware(embedded software), or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, thedesktop manager 120 of FIG. 1 performs the method 400. In anotherembodiment, the desktop manager 220 of FIG. 2 performs the method 400.Alternatively, other components of the host computing system 102 canperform some or all of the operations of method 400.

Referring to FIG. 4A, processing logic begins collecting time-basedinformation about data objects (e.g., local data objects 142 and/orremote data objects 162) (block 402), and stores the time-basedinformation in a data store (e.g., data store 150) (block 404). Usingthe time-based information stored in the data store, the processinglogic creates a time-ordered desktop view of desktop items from the dataobjects (block 406). Next, the processing logic presents a GUI on adisplay (e.g., 170), displaying at least a portion of the time-ordereddesktop view of the desktop items (block 408), and the method 400 ends.

In another embodiment of the method 400, the local data objects arestored in a file directory of a file system, and the processing logiccreates the time-ordered desktop view by organizing the plurality ofdesktop items according to the time-based information regardless ofstorage locations of the desktop items in the file directory. In anotherembodiment, the data objects are both local data objects (e.g., 142) andremote data objects (e.g., 152, 162), and the local data objects arestored in a file directory of a file system and at least one data objectis stored remotely, such as in a remote data storage or remote server.The processing logic creates the time-ordered desktop view by organizingthe desktop items according to the time-based information regardless ofstorage locations of the local data objects and the at least one remotedata object that is stored remotely.

In one embodiment of the method, the time-based information about eachof the data objects includes at least one of a creation timestamp, alast-accessed timestamp, a last-modified timestamp, a calendar event, areminder event, or a follow-up date. Alternatively, the time-basedinformation may be other information about the data objects, such as areminder data, due date data, to-do data, to-read data, reoccurringevent data, or record or history data associated with the respectivedata objects. In another embodiment, the time-based information abouteach of the data objects includes a time-based type of action to beperformed on the respective data object, the time-based type of actionsincluding a future action, a current action, and a past action. In thisembodiment, the processing logic organizing the desktop items accordingto the time-based type of actions and presents the organizedtime-ordered desktop view in the GUI.

In another embodiment, the processing logic organizes the desktop itemsin the time-ordered desktop view into one or more sub-categories. Theone or more sub-categories may include a current desktop, a desktop oftoday, a desktop of last week, a desktop of tomorrow, a desktop of byend of week, or a desktop of any specified period. The processing logicpresents the time-ordered desktop view that has been organized into thesub-categories in the GUI. The processing logic may receive user inputto create, modify, or manage the time-ordered desktop view. For example,the processing logic may receive user input to customize thetime-ordered desktop view, including which of the one or moresub-categories to display in the GUI and/or the order of thesub-categories. In another embodiment, the processing logic can presentthe time-ordered desktop view in a list view, a thumbnail view, an iconview, a menu view, or in other views as would be appreciated by one ofordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. Theprocessing logic can present the time-ordered desktop view in at leastone of a file browser, a web browser, a viewing area of an applicationexecuting on the computing system, or in a working area (main view) ofthe computing system's display.

In one embodiment of the method at block 408, the processing logicgenerates a symbolic link for each of the desktop items to be displayed,where each link includes a path to a storage location where therespective data object is stored. The symbolic link may be at least oneof an icon, a thumbnail, a shortcut, an alias, a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL), or a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or other types ofsymbolic links as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in theart having the benefit of this disclosure. In one embodiment, the pathis the local path to the storage location of the data object within thecomputing system. In one embodiment, the path is a local path to thestorage location of the data object within a file directory of a filesystem when the operating system uses the file system. In anotherembodiment, the path is a network path to the storage location of thedata object when the data object is stored remotely from the computingsystem.

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 420 ofautomatically backing up desktop items. The method 420 is performed byprocessing logic that may comprise hardware (circuitry, dedicated logic,etc.), software (such as is run on a general purpose computing system ora dedicated machine), firmware (embedded software), or any combinationthereof. In one embodiment, the desktop manager 120 of FIG. 1 performsthe method 420. In another embodiment, the desktop manager 320 of FIG. 3performs the method 420. Alternatively, other components of the hostcomputing system 102 can perform some or all of the operations of method420.

Referring to FIG. 4B, processing logic begins with collecting time-basedinformation about local data objects stored in a local data store (e.g.,data store 140) of the computing system (block 422), and stores thetime-based information in a data store (e.g., data store 150) (block424). Next, the processing logic creates a desktop view of desktop itemsfrom the data objects (block 406). Next, the processing logic determineswhether to back up one or more of the desktop times using the time-basedinformation (block 428). If at block 428, the processing logicdetermines to back up desktop items, the processing logic automaticallybacks up the one or more desktop items in a remote data store (e.g., 150and/or 160) over a network (e.g., 103) (block 430); otherwise, themethod 420 ends.

In another embodiment, the processing logic presents a GUI on a display(e.g., 170), displaying at least a portion of the time-ordered desktopview of the desktop items. The processing logic generates a symboliclink for each of the desktop items to be displayed in the GUI, whereeach symbolic link represents a path to a storage location where therespective data object is stored in the local data store. In thisembodiment at block 430, the processing logic modifies the symbolic linkfor each of the one or more desktop items determined for automaticbackup. The modified symbolic link then includes a path to a storagelocation in the remote data store. As described above, the symbolic linkmay be at least one of an icon, a thumbnail, a shortcut, an alias, aURL, or a URI, or other types of symbolic links as would be appreciatedby one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of thisdisclosure.

As described above, the processing logic may receive user input tocreate, modify, or manage the created view. For example, the processinglogic may receive user input to customize the desktop view, such as whatdesktop items to display, which sub-categories to include in the desktopview, the order of the sub-categories, or the like. In anotherembodiment, the processing logic can present the desktop view in a listview, a thumbnail view, an icon view, a menu view, or in other views aswould be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure. The processing logic can present the desktopview in at least one of a file browser, a web browser, a viewing area ofan application executing on the computing system, or a working area(main view) of the computing system's display.

In one embodiment at block 430, the processing logic automatically backsup the data objects by mirroring a local copy and a remote copy of eachof the one or more desktop items to be backed up. The local copies arestored in the local data store and the remote copies are stored in theremote date store. In another embodiment at block 430, the processinglogic automatically backs up the data objects by mirroring local copyand a remote copy of each of the one or more of the desktop items for aspecified period. After the specified period, the processing logicdeletes the local copies of the one or more of the desktop items.

FIG. 4C is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 450 of filteringthe time-ordered desktop view according to labels of the desktop items.The method 450 is performed by processing logic that may comprisehardware (circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as is run ona general purpose computing system or a dedicated machine), firmware(embedded software), or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, thedesktop manager 120 of FIG. 1 performs the method 450. In anotherembodiment, the desktop manager 220 of FIG. 2 performs the method 450.Alternatively, other components of the host computing system 102 canperform some or all of the operations of method 450.

Referring to FIG. 4C, processing logic begins collecting time-basedinformation about data objects (e.g., local data objects 142 and/orremote data objects 162) (block 452), stores the time-based informationin a data store (e.g., data store 150) (block 454). The processing logicalso maintains label information in the data store (block 456). Thelabel information includes zero or more labels assigned to each of thedata objects. The labels may be a set of default labels, a set ofuser-defined labels, or a combination of both as described above. Usingthe time-based information stored in the data store (e.g., data store150), the processing logic creates a time-ordered desktop view ofdesktop items from the data objects (block 458). Next, the processinglogic filters the time-ordered desktop view of desktop items accordingto labels using the label information (block 460), and presents a GUI ona display (e.g., 170), displaying at least a portion of the filtered,time-ordered desktop view of the desktop items (block 462); and themethod 450 ends. For example, the user may be viewing the time-orderedlist of desktop items and then click on one of the default oruser-defined labels, and the processing logic can present a filteredview of the desktop items that have that label. Alternatively, thelabels may be used for other filter scenarios as would be appreciated byone of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

In another embodiment of the method 450, the processing logic receivesuser input to define a new user-defined label. The processing logiccreates the new user-defined label, and updates the set of existinglabels to include the new user-defined label. The processing logic canthen re-filter the time-ordered desktop view according to the updatedset of labels.

In one embodiment, the processing logic at block 460 filters thetime-ordered desktop view by determining a label, if any, assigned toeach of the desktop items of the time-ordered desktop view, andorganizes each of the desktop items into one or more sub-categoriesaccording to the assigned labels. The processing logic then presents theGUI with the filtered, time-ordered desktop view of the desktop items.In this embodiment, the sub-categories correspond to the labels, whichmay be default labels or user-defined labels as described above. In afurther embodiment, the processing logic assigns a label to each of thedesktop items that has no label designation based on either thetime-based information or other metadata of the respective data object.

As noted above, the processing logic can automatically assign labels tothe desktop items when no label designation has been given.Alternatively, the processing logic can assign labels according to userinput received from the user as described in more detail below withrespect to FIG. 4D.

FIG. 4D is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 470 of assigninglabels to desktop items. The method 470 is performed by processing logicthat may comprise hardware (circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software(such as is run on a general purpose computing system or a dedicatedmachine), firmware (embedded software), or any combination thereof. Inone embodiment, the desktop manager 120 of FIG. 1 performs the method450. In another embodiment, the desktop manager 220 of FIG. 2 performsthe method 470. Alternatively, other components of the host computingsystem 102 can perform some or all of the operations of method 470.

Referring to FIG. 4D, processing logic begins with receiving user inputto perform an operation on one or more desktop items (block 427). In oneembodiment, the processing logic receives the user input directly fromthe desktop view (e.g., a window in the GUI) displaying the time-ordereddesktop view of desktop items. Alternatively, the user input may bereceived via other user interfaces than the desktop view of the GUI. Atblock 474, the processing logic determines if the operation is to add anexisting label to the one or more desktop items. If so, the processinglogic adds the existing label to the one or more desktop items (block476), and returns to block 472 to determine if additional user input isreceived. At block 478, the processing logic determines if the operationis to add a star designation to the one or more desktop items. If so,the processing logic adds a star label to the one or more desktop items(block 480), and returns to block 472 to determine if additional userinput is received. A desktop item can be designated as a starred desktopitem to denote any meaning a user assigns to the designation, but oftenreflects the importance of the desktop item over other desktop items.The star label can be one of the labels, but can be handled separatefrom the other labels. For example, a desktop item may be given thedocument label, as well as being a starred desktop item. At block 482,the processing logic determines if the operation is to add a new labelto the one or more desktop items. If so, the processing logic creates anew label to the set of existing labels (block 484), and adds the newlabel to the one or more desktop items (block 486), and returns to block472 to determine if additional user input is received. If the processinglogic determines that none of these operations are to be performed, theprocessing logic may perform another operation that may be related orun-related to labels (block 488). For example, the user input may beinput received in a search utility on the desktop to search keywordswithin the desktop items. The user input may also be used to search forexisting labels or the like. It should be noted that other operationsmay be performed in connection with the labels as would be appreciatedby one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of thisdisclosure.

In another embodiment, upon return to block 472 from blocks 476, 480,486, and 488, the processing logic can re-filter the time-ordered listto update the desktop view of the time-ordered desktop view in the GUI.For example, when a new label is created, the processing logic updatesthe set of labels to include the new user-defined label and thenre-filters the time-ordered desktop view according to the updated set oflabels.

In another embodiment, the processing logic receives user input to add anote to one or more of the desktop items. The processing logic adds thenote to the one desktop item. For example, the note can be stored in anindex entry associated with the desktop item as would be appreciated byone of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computing system 500 for desktop informationmanagement. Within the computing system 500 is a set of instructions forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. In alternative embodiments, the machine may beconnected (e.g., networked) to other machines in a LAN, an intranet, anextranet, or the Internet. The machine may operate in the capacity of aserver or a client machine in a client-server network environment, or asa peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.The machine may be a PC, a tablet PC, a set-top-box (STB), a personaldata assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a server, anetwork router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing aset of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to betaken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein for desktop information management, suchas the method 400, 420, 450, and 470 described above. In one embodiment,the computing system 500 represents various components that may beimplemented in the host computing system 102 as described above.Alternatively, the host computing system 102 may include more or lesscomponents as illustrated in the computing system 500.

The exemplary computing system 500 includes a processing device 502, amain memory 504 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), etc.), astatic memory 506 (e.g., flash memory, static random access memory(SRAM), etc.), and a data storage device 516, each of which communicatewith each other via a bus 530.

Processing device 502 represents one or more general-purpose processingdevices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like.More particularly, the processing device 502 may be a complexinstruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction setcomputing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW)microprocessor, or a processor implementing other instruction sets orprocessors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Theprocessing device 502 may also be one or more special-purpose processingdevices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP),network processor, or the like. The processing device 502 is configuredto execute the processing logic (e.g., desktop information management526) for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.

The computing system 500 may further include a network interface device522. The computing system 500 also may include a video display unit 510(e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), analphanumeric input device 512 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 514 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 520 (e.g., aspeaker).

The data storage device 516 may include a computer-readable storagemedium 524 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g.,desktop information management 526) embodying any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The desktop informationmanagement 526 may also reside, completely or at least partially, withinthe main memory 504 and/or within the processing device 502 duringexecution thereof by the computing system 500, the main memory 504 andthe processing device 502 also constituting computer-readable storagemedia. The desktop information management 526 may further be transmittedor received over a network via the network interface device 522.

While the computer-readable storage medium 524 is shown in an exemplaryembodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storagemedium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media(e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated cachesand servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include anymedium that is capable of storing a set of instructions for execution bythe machine and that causes the machine to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies of the present embodiments. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken toinclude, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media,magnetic media, or other types of mediums for storing the instructions.The term “computer-readable transmission medium” shall be taken toinclude any medium that is capable of transmitting a set of instructionsfor execution by the machine to cause the machine to perform any one ormore of the methodologies of the present embodiments.

The desktop information management module 532, components, and otherfeatures described herein (for example in relation to FIGS. 1-3) can beimplemented as discrete hardware components or integrated in thefunctionality of hardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs, orsimilar devices. The desktop information management module 532 mayimplement operations of desktop information management as describedherein with respect to FIGS. 4A-4D. In addition, the desktop informationmanagement module 532 can be implemented as firmware or functionalcircuitry within hardware devices. Further, the desktop informationmanagement module 532 can be implemented in any combination hardwaredevices and software components.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary GUI 600, including a desktop view 602,according to one embodiment. The GUI 600 includes a working area (mainview) with various symbolic links to applications, documents, folders,and other desktop items. In this embodiment, the main view or workingarea is an activities view that includes a link to applications, aselect few applications (e.g., commonly-used applications), a desktoplink 601, and a select few desktop items (e.g., currently opened desktopitems). When the desktop link 601 is activated, the GUI 600 displays thedesktop view 602 over the working area. For example, the desktop view602 may be shown when the user clicks on the desktop link 601 on the GUI600. The desktop view 602 may be semi-transparent, or may cover some orall of the working area. The desktop view 602 includes the time-ordereddesktop view of desktop items, which is generated by the desktop viewgenerator (204 or 304). In this embodiment, the desktop view 602includes desktop items 604 that are currently open 606, desktop items oftoday 608, and desktop items of this week 610. This desktop view 602 maydisplay all of the desktop items, or only a portion of the time-ordereddesktop view, but additional desktop items may be lower in the desktopview 602. These additional desktop items can be accessed, for example,by the user scrolling down in the desktop view 602. The desktop items604 may include applications, such as the media player application,files, folders, as well as other data objects. The desktop items 604 arerepresented as icons, but could also be other types of symbolic links asdescribed herein. The desktop view 602 is a grid view of icons, butcould be a list view, a menu view, a thumbnail view, or any combinationthereof. In one embodiment, if desktop items 604 are not pinned into thedesktop view 602, the desktop items 604 will gradually fall down inposition of the desktop view 602 until they safely drop into atime-ordered list, and eventually into an archive, as described abovewith respect to the backup manager 310 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 also illustrates a set of labels 612 for the desktop view 602.The depicted labels include new, frequent, starred, shared, documents,music, videos, pictures, downloads, conversations, from email, andtrash. These labels 612 may be default labels, user-defined labels, or acombination of both. Alternatively, other labels may be used for thedefault labels or for user-defined labels. The GUI 600 may also includeother features, such as a find feature that allows the user to searchfor data objects, desktop items 604, and/or labels 612. The GUI 600 mayalso include another find feature that allows the user to search thedesktop items directly in the desktop view 602 (not illustrated). Eachdesktop item 604 can be selected, for example, by left-clicking a mousecursor over the respective icon. A user may also select additionaloptions for a particular desktop item 604, for example, byright-clicking the mouse cursor over the respective icon. As shown inFIG. 6, the user may select various options from a menu that isdisplayed in response to the user right-clicking the desktop item 604.These options include an option to open the desktop item 604 (e.g.,opening an application or a document), a selection option to select anapplication to use when opening the desktop item 604, an option to quickview the desktop item 604, an option to eject the desktop item 604, anoption to add a label to the desktop item 604, an option to share thedesktop item 604, an option to move the desktop item 604, and an optionto move the desktop item 604 to the trash. Alternatively, other types ofoptions can be provided, and more or less options can be provided thanas shown in FIG. 6 as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill inthe art having the benefit of this disclosure.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention and variousembodiments with various modifications as may be suited to theparticular use contemplated.

1. A method, implemented by a computing system programmed to perform thefollowing, comprising: collecting time-based information about aplurality of data objects; creating a time-ordered desktop view of aplurality of desktop items from the plurality of data objects using thetime-based information; and presenting a graphical user interface (GUI)on a display of the computing system, the GUI displaying at least aportion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktopitems.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data objectsare stored in a file directory of a file system of the computing system,and wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop view comprisesorganizing the plurality of desktop items according to the time-basedinformation regardless of storage locations of the plurality of desktopitems in the file directory.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein at leastone of the plurality of data objects is stored in a file directory of afile system of the computing system and at least one of the plurality ofdata objects is stored remotely from the computing system, and whereinsaid creating the time-ordered desktop view comprises organizing theplurality of desktop items according to the time-based informationregardless of storage locations of the at least one data object storedin the file directory and the at least one data object stored remotely.4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the collectedinformation in a data store of the computing system.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the time-based information about each of the pluralityof data objects comprises at least one of a creation timestamp, alast-accessed timestamp, a last-modified timestamp, a calendar event, areminder event, or a follow-up date.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinthe time-based information about each of the plurality of data objectscomprises a time-based type of action to be performed on the respectiveone of the plurality of data objects, and wherein the time-based type ofactions includes a future action, a current action, and a past action.7. The method of claim 6, wherein said wherein said creating thetime-ordered desktop view comprises organizing the plurality of desktopitems according to the time-based type of actions, and wherein saidpresenting the GUI comprises presenting the time-ordered desktop viewaccording to the organized time-based type of actions.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop view comprisesorganizing the plurality of desktop items into one or moresub-categories, wherein the one or more sub-categories comprises atleast one of a current desktop, a desktop of today, a desktop of thisweek, a desktop of last week, a desktop of tomorrow, or a desktop of byend of week, and wherein said presenting the GUI comprises presentingone or more of the sub-categories in the time-ordered desktop view. 9.The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving user input tocustomize the time-ordered desktop view.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein said presenting the GUI comprises generating a symbolic link foreach of the plurality of desktop items to be displayed in the GUI, andwherein each of the symbolic links comprises a path to a storagelocation where the respective data object is stored.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the symbolic links each comprise at least one of anicon, a thumbnail, a shortcut, an alias, a Uniform Resource Locator(URL), or a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).
 12. The method of claim1, wherein said presenting comprising presenting the time-ordereddesktop view in at least one of a list view, a thumbnail view, an iconview, or a menu view.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein said presentingcomprising presenting the GUI in at least one of a file browser, a webbrowser, a viewing area of an application executing on the computingsystem, or a main view of the display.
 14. The method of claim 1,wherein said presenting the GUI comprises generating a link for each ofthe plurality of desktop items to be displayed in the GUI, and whereineach of the links refers to one of the plurality of data objects storedin the computing system or stored remotely from the computing system.15. A computer readable storage medium including instructions that, whenexecuted by a processing system, cause the processing system to performa method comprising: collecting time-based information about a pluralityof data objects; creating a time-ordered desktop view of a plurality ofdesktop items from the plurality of data objects using the time-basedinformation; and presenting a graphical user interface (GUI) having atleast a portion of the time-ordered desktop view of the plurality ofdesktop items.
 16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein the plurality of data objects are stored in a file directory ofa file system of the computing system, and wherein said creating thetime-ordered desktop view comprises organizing the plurality of desktopitems according to the time-based information regardless of storagelocations of the plurality of desktop items in the file directory. 17.The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein at least oneof the plurality of data objects is stored in a file directory of a filesystem of the computing system and at least one of the plurality of dataobjects is stored remotely from the computing system, and wherein saidcreating the time-ordered desktop view comprises organizing theplurality of desktop items according to the time-based informationregardless of storage locations of the at least one data object storedin the file directory and the at least one data object stored remotely.18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the methodfurther comprises storing the time-based information in a data store ofthe computing system.
 19. The computer readable storage medium of claim15, wherein the time-based information about each of the plurality ofdata objects comprises at least one of a creation timestamp, alast-accessed timestamp, a last-modified timestamp, a calendar event, areminder event, or a follow-up date.
 20. The computer readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein said creating the time-ordered desktop viewcomprises organizing the plurality of desktop items into one or moresub-categories, wherein the one or more sub-categories comprises atleast one of a current desktop, a desktop of today, a desktop of thisweek, a desktop of last week, a desktop of tomorrow, or a desktop of byend of week, and wherein said presenting the GUI comprises presentingone or more of the sub-categories in the time-ordered desktop view. 21.The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the methodfurther comprises receiving user input to customize the time-ordereddesktop view.
 22. A computing system, comprising: a display; datastorage to store time-based information about a plurality of dataobjects; and a processing device coupled to the data storage and thedisplay, wherein the processing device is configured to execute adesktop manager to: create a time-ordered desktop view of a plurality ofdesktop items from the plurality of data objects using the time-basedinformation; and present a graphical user interface (GUI) on thedisplay, the GUI displaying at least a portion of the time-ordereddesktop view of the plurality of desktop items.
 23. The computing systemof claim 22, wherein the desktop manager comprises: a time informationcollector communicatively coupled to the data storage and configured tocollect the time-based information about the plurality of data objectsand to store the time-based information in the data storage; a desktopview generator communicatively coupled to the data storage to create thetime-ordered desktop view of the plurality of desktop items using thetime-based information stored in the data storage; and a GUI enginecommunicatively coupled to the display and the desktop view generator topresent the GUI on the display, the GUI displaying at least a portion ofthe time-ordered desktop view generated by the desktop view generator.24. The computing system of claim 22, wherein the time-based informationis stored in a first database stored on the data storage, wherein atleast one of the plurality of data objects is stored in a seconddatabase stored on the data storage, and wherein the time informationcollector is to access the second database to collect the time-basedinformation about the at least one of the plurality of data objectsstored in the second database.
 25. The computing system of claim 22,wherein the time-based information is stored in a first database storedon the data storage, wherein at least one of the plurality of dataobjects is stored in a second database stored on a network remotely fromthe computing system, wherein the desktop manager further comprises anetwork interface to communicate with the second database over thenetwork, and wherein the time information collector is to access thesecond database via the network interface to collect the time-basedinformation about the at least one of the plurality of data objectsstored in the second database.
 26. The computing system of claim 22,wherein the plurality of data objects are stored in a file directory ofa file system of the computing system.